Alan Mendoza says claims that party leader is racist or pro-Russia are ‘lazy’
Alan Mendoza says linking Putin and Nigel Farage might be ‘an easy way to score points but it’s not true’ Credit: David Rose
Poppy Coburn
Nov 30, 2025
Nigel Farage does not sympathise with Vladimir Putin, Reform’s new foreign policy adviser has insisted.
Alan Mendoza, who recently defected to Reform UK to advise the party on foreign policy and geopolitics, has dismissed any notion that the party is soft on the Russian state in the wake of the Nathan Gill scandal.
Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison this month after admitting taking bribes for pro-Russia interviews and speeches.
The 52-year-old, from Llangefni, Anglesey, was thought to have received up to £40,000 to help pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
Mr Farage has previously come under fire for his comments on Russia in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine.
He once appeared to condemn Western policies of isolating Russia on the world stage, saying “if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds”.
But Mr Mendoza, who co-founded the Henry Jackson Society think tank, and was well known within policy circles for his robust position against Putin’s regime, said: “People have gone on comments he made 10, 15 years ago … I don’t think even then he was a supporter of Putin.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Mendoza, who is not an official spokesman for the party, said he believed that Mr Farage had until recently not focused on defence policy, with his attention instead drawn to domestic and European issues.
While he is not responsible for policy decisions within Reform, Mr Mendoza’s decades of experience and prominence within Conservative Party circles suggests a growing acceptance of Mr Farage by hawkish figures in the foreign policy establishment.
Dismissing discontent around aspects of Reform’s agenda as “spin”, Mr Mendoza disputes the idea that the party is “racist, pro-Putin, big-state”. It’s a “lazy perception” that comes from those who haven’t bothered to engage with senior figures within the party like Zia Yusuf, Danny Kruger and Richard Tice.
Public opinion towards the Russian leader is overwhelmingly hostile across the political spectrum in Britain, suggesting that attempts to link Putin and Mr Farage may prove fruitful for his political rivals. It might be “an easy way to score points, but it’s not true”, he adds.
Those who believe Mr Farage was insufficiently hawkish towards the Russian regime in the past may point to the recent jailing of Gill.
He had been an ally of Mr Farage since Ukip, and had briefly served as leader of Reform UK Wales from March to May 2021.
Mr Mendoza believes Gill is “clearly a bad apple” but points to the many other bad apples in British history who were able to infiltrate institutions. He dismisses the idea that his arrest suggests Reform is “compromised”, and strongly doubts that Reform is particularly vulnerable to Russian espionage attempts.
Doubters of Mr Farage’s increasing firmness against Russia may also point to his close relationship with the American president.
He attended his inauguration ceremony, and has visited him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on multiple occasions.
Mr Trump has been dogged with unproven allegations of Russian collusion since he ran for US president in 2016.
‘Misunderstood’ on foreign policy
But the friendship between Mr Farage and Mr Trump is not, in Mr Mendoza’s understanding, an impediment to maintaining a staunchly anti-Russia foreign policy position.
Like Mr Farage, Mr Trump is also “misunderstood” when it comes to his foreign policy priorities, he says.
He is sympathetic to Mr Trump’s desire to see the war in Ukraine end quickly, even if he believes that the current deals are unacceptable. He believes that the Americans have taken a more sensible position in the Middle East than our own government, especially in relation to our Gaza policy.
Is Nigel Farage now a pro-Ukraine, pro-Israel anti-isolationist with stalwart Atlanticist credentials, then? Mr Mendoza pauses. “He’s pro-British … he understands what our history is, where we sit, where we will go as a country.”
The national interest in foreign policy terms pertains to “promoting an international rules-based order” and it has been for the past 80 years, which will “no doubt continue to be the case”. This would also mean recognising that the world is changing.
Mr Mendoza believes following international guidance set out by Russian and Chinese judges, for instance, would be a foolish course of action.
There is room for negotiation if it is understood to be in the immediate national self-interest, such as understanding that while the Taliban are a “terrible” regime, the Government may have to do business with them to enforce returns agreements as part of its immigration agenda. There are limits to pragmatism, though, as Britain will still strive not abandon its “values”.
A Britain-first foreign policy would be different from a Maga-flavoured America-first one, particularly that espoused by more isolationist figures within the administration like JD Vance. Mr Mendoza has not spoken to him in person, but believes as he has “said different things” at different times in his career he may be open to changing his mind.
Mr Mendoza, too, has changed his mind: past social media comments show a disdain towards Mr Farage’s past political outfits. Why did he defect to Reform now?
Having been a Conservative Party member for more than 20 years, he is at pains to make clear his respect for current Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch. Her task is “enormously challenging”.
But he felt over the space of several years that the Conservative Party had been heading in the wrong direction. He declined to readmit his name to the candidate selection list at the last election. The decision to focus the 2023 Conservative Party conference on banning smoking provided clarity that “this was no longer a serious philosophical political party”.
‘The real Nigel Farage’
There are other aspects of Mr Farage’s alleged past that Mr Mendoza is keen to comment on. He is appalled by any suggestion of bigotry on the part of Reform’s leader during his school days, following a report from The Guardian where 20 of his contemporaries at Dulwich College alleged he had made luridly racist and anti-Semitic comments. Mr Farage, responding to the claims, said that he has never directly racially abused anybody.
“I’ve had many conversations with Nigel Farage. I have not seen an anti-Semitic bone in his body. I’ve seen him get personally angry at the idea that British Jews should have to leave the UK because of anti-Semitism. I think that is the real Nigel Farage, and that has always been the real Nigel Farage.” For The Guardian to publish such a story is “the weakest smear I’ve ever seen”.
Mr Mendoza leaves little room for doubt in his high estimation of Reform’s leader. “In May 1930, nobody would have thought that Winston Churchill could have become Prime Minister, and anyone who suggested it would have thought it was absolutely mad. But in May 1940, anyone who suggested anything else was the mad person in that respect.
“So there are times in history when the man and the moment come together.”
He assures me that he is not intending to directly compare Mr Farage to Churchill, but rather to make a point that he is simply “the outstanding politician of our age”.
If you work for RaT; as Farage did for many years since its inception, you are a ruZZian agent by definition.
20 years of pro-ruZZia activism cannot be erased, forgiven or forgotten. Only the vile Marxist George Galloway appeared on that murderous channel more times than Farage.
However, with the premiership within his grasp, Farage may have made a tactical decision. He surprisingly went against his great friend Krasnov on the surrender plan and a commenter on the DT revealed something interesting about Richard Tice, the powerful chairman of Farage’s Reform Party : he supports Ukraine.
The following is from Hansard, the official record of debates in the UK Parliament :-
Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness) (Reform)
– View Speech – Hansard –
“May I remind the House that last year I personally donated a five-figure sum, bought a pick-up truck, filled it with first aid supplies, drove it with friends and colleagues to Ukraine, and donated it to the brave soldiers of Ukraine. My support and Reform’s support for Ukraine has been rock-solid throughout, Prime Minister. It is important that this House is united, which it is. Last week, when the 28-point plan emerged, we rejected it immediately. Just yesterday, I was with a Ukrainian delegation, and we were talking specifically about the leverage that European nations have with regard to the frozen assets, the majority of which are here in Europe. I urge the Prime Minister, among all the noise, to utilise that leverage, because that, I think, is one of the most powerful negotiating points that the west has against the vile dictator, Putin.”
If you look like a rat, smell like a rat, and sound like a rat, you are a rat.
“Like Mr Farage, Mr Trump is also “misunderstood” when…”. Please dear Lord, give me a break, please. I don’t believe with all of Taco’s actions anyone in their right mind can say this. I know a piece of pond scum when I see it.